Interest in snowboarding seems be cooling, while skiing is gaining in popularity. (Photo: Stockbyte)

Is snowboarding no longer cool? A recent article from The New York Times explains that the sport is "sputtering in the United States."

The
numbers in the article paint a stark picture for the extreme sport.
This isn't just anecdotal evidence. According to Nate Fristoe, who
monitors winter-sport trends,
the number of days that snowboarders go to resorts has fallen from 7.6
days a year 15 years ago to around 6.1 days per year today. Skiing, on
the other hand (or foot?), has remained at around 5.5 days per year for
the past few years.

There isn't one reason behind snowboarding's
apparent face plant. The Times writes that a large factor is the age of
the participants. When the sport became all the rage in the '90s, the
paper writes, many original snowboarders were in their mid-teens. An
early 2000s article from ABC News reported that snowboarding was the
country's fastest growing sport three out of five years, from 1996 to
2000, thanks in large to young snowboarders.

Not anymore. Now,
nearly 20 years later, those guys and gals are older with more
responsibilities like jobs and families and less time to spend on the
slopes.

Also a problem, according to the Times: Fewer people are
learning to snowboard. "In the 2003-4 season more than 42 percent of all
beginners on the slopes ages 14 and younger started out on a snowboard.
The percentage has steadily fallen since then, last season dropping to
about 34 percent, according to the ski areas association."

Fristoe puts it like so:

Snowboarding
lost some of its mojo around 2005, 2006, and we've been running on
fumes since then. …It's like any kind of trend: It's full of all sorts
of energy ... until it isn't.

A 2004 article from CNN
echoes Fristoe's sentiments. Back then, snowboarding was on an epic
upswing. Participation in the sport surged 300 percent from 1988 to
2004.

Yahoo!'s search data doesn't go to the early days of
snowboarding (we're not that old), however, we can look at snowboarding
search trends from the past several years. Whether coincidence or not,
the searches on "snowboarding" have tumbled steadily since 2010.
Meanwhile, Yahoo! searches for "skiing" have remained relatively
constant over the past several winters.

According to a piece from the Los Angeles Times,
skiing and snowboarding have switched places. While snowboarding is
fading, skiing is gaining ground. "Sales of snowboards and snowboard
equipment have slipped 21% over the last four years, while sales of skis
have climbed 3% in the same period, according to SnowSports Industries
America." Part of that is due to new ski designs that make skiing easier
to pick up and enjoy.

Of course, snowboarding is more than just a
fad. It's in no danger of going the way of the pet rock or leg warmer.
But the numbers are serious enough for industry experts to take notice
and fight back. The Times explains that some resorts are installing
benches at the top of chairlifts so snowboarders won't have to roll
around in the snow while they fasten their boots. And Burton, the
world's largest snowboard manufacturer, has developed new boards
especially for young kids.
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